First Look: Moto X With Custom Wood Backs

Motorola is trying to change the smartphone game a bit by allowing customers to customize the entire look of their phone. But outside of flashy colors from MotoMaker, Moto is ready to experiment with different types of materials on its Moto X, one of those being wood.

During our time with the device today, we were told that Motorola is currently testing Bamboo, Teak, Ebony, and Rosewood wood backs with availability happening later this year. When you pick up a device with a wood back, you can actually tell from the texture that it’s wood. We’re not talking about a heavily laminated skin on top of plastic – Motorola actually means to put wood on the back of a smartphone.

And wood could be just the beginning. The wood back option should rollout some time in Q4 of this year. Here is a first look wood on a smartphone.

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Hothfox

Man. I wanted to upgrade my GNex so badly, but all the phones out recently have been disappointments or Verizon’s botched their launch somehow. The S4 is a nice phone, but I hate TouchWiz, and the touch button setup really pisses me off. I wanted the HTC One, but by the time Verizon gets it, I’ll have less than half a year to use it before my contract is up (switching to AT&T prepaid). The DROID line is okay, but I’m not interested in spending $700 on a new phone this late in my contract. This Moto X was one of my last hopes, but the price point just isn’t there versus the specs.

ScottDooley

How about everyone stops pissing and moaning about the price point. If we all remember motorola isn’t doing that great and it’s made in America, which without questions brings the price point higher.

Jordan

Great. Wood would help me burn this phone quicker for being one of the biggest disappointments since my Thunderbolt! So glad I got an S4 2 months ago

Brandon Golway

The Moto X has wood… hahaha

BOB Dudek

..Or just get give a Samsung Galaxy S4..with old fashioned SD card and removable juice.!

No longer will we call are phones bricks, instead we’ll call them planks, unfortunately this plank is going to flop

Chris

Okay. So if customization isn’t coming to Verizon for a while, will you be able to customize it later (by replacing the back cover)? I guess my question is more or less… if there’s no customization now, what’s the point? If you aren’t going to purchase the Moto X towards release, why would you wait to purchase a “customized” version several months down the road?

ChucksInCharge

For some reason Monty Python comes to mind.
And why do witches burn?

mgamerz

I am enjoying reading all these comments about people feeling entitled to a lower price point.

Joe

Entitled? They just won’t sell and after all, we are the customers, stupid.

zurginator

We are an extremely elitist minority though. If you asked us, the iPhone wouldn’t sell at all. If you asked us, a bunch of phones that have sold incredibly well wouldn’t have sold.

cizzlen

I’m lovin’ it myself. This is a good opportunity for Android to steal away a lot of those legacy iPhone users.

mgamerz

The comments on the blogs are reinforcing that android is about specs. Without high specs it implies android runs pretty bad. The iPhone seems to do pretty damn well without the specs. Yes, I’ve used one. For the majority of tasks it seems to run smoother than android. It doesn’t age that well.

cizzlen

Exactly. This phone was never meant to be about specs. It was to provide a highly optimized and custom user experience for Android. The hate on this phone by people who haven’t even used it yet is ridiculous.

Edit: And this is coming from an HTC One user who happens to like Sense 5 quite a bit.

Pimp

No thanks Motorola, you can play with your own wood

Kevintw

Gross. It looks like it’s covered in contact paper.

Tyler

Stainless steel please

CharlesJorgenson

The ebony is awesome, i just worry about wear on it though, like how thick is the wood, will the speaker grille break? over time will it splinter into my hand? Im hoping it has a heavy lacquer coating or something.

Eduardo Cruz

Haha Here comes all the bitchin and whining

BOB Dudek

Think the wood option is the Contractor only V.

Detonation

Sweet, so now if you set you phone down on a damp spot or leave it in a sweaty pocket all day, it can start to rot!

Shssael Perez

They had a great opportuninty to change the market they blew it, once again. Thanks but no thanks, keep your wood.

RoboCop

The colors look great…but no way am I forking over that much money on something less powerful with less space, and less features than the GS4…especially when this is $250 for 32GB and the S4 is $200 after tax on sale at a lot of places WITH a 16GB card inside making it 32GB

jmsbwmn

I guess I’ll post the only positive Moto X comment on Droid-Life today. I think the customization options are incredible, the pricing is fair (let’s be realistic, guys – this phone is tied to how many carriers?), and the wood backs, especially the dark one, look SICK! Here’s hoping I can unload my GS3!

jose

BUT, all the cool stuff and 32gb version are going to ATT only. In usual fashion, Verizon customers get the crappiest phones.

mike dunham

Leave Verizon?

jose

I’d love to, but I sure wouldn’t do it for this phone.

T4rd

If there’s a carrier worse than Verizon, it’s AT&T.

A.Miller

In what way?

T4rd

Worse coverage and same plans/policies for the same price as Verizon..?

Hothfox

Their pre-paid plan is far and above Verizon’s. LTE availability to pre-paid users and 2GB of data a month (with unlimited text and talk) for $65 is pretty damn good. Their LTE is expanding (it’s everywhere I travel, actually). Most people that would leave Verizon for a phone would probably go pre-paid these days.

T4rd

We’re not talking pre-paid though.

Unlimited data or bust.

Hothfox

Ah, that wasn’t clear. I used to be very attached to my unlimited, but when my dad upgraded a line on our family plan, I lost unlimited and realized I was only using less than 2GB a month anyway, including heavy Netflix and Google Play music use. I’m pretty well trained for when I leave Verizon for AT&T prepaid in March.